What a difference a week makes! In this industry update we can definitely see that Google is getting a lot more aggressive with securing more of the domain traffic while the direct advertising networks are struggling.

The question I find myself asking is, “What’s causing this change?”

At this stage I can only guess that COVID-19 is having a big impact on advertising networks that don’t have a depth of clientele that are wanting to secure the traffic. If a client stops advertising, then there isn’t another to take their place.

Typical mainstays of the direct advertising networks have always been the travel and finance sectors. No one is traveling and loans are scarce as the population hunkers down for a second wave of the virus. This makes the direct advertising networks more vulnerable to global shocks.

That being said, the numbers are still looking very positive and as the video shows, it’s all good for the domain investor.

In this update we are getting our first glimpse of what the northern hemisphere summer may pan out for the domain industry. Although it’s early days as yet, the statistics are panning out to be really interesting.

I read a recent news article that suggested the USA may have a second wave of COVID-19. This will be a terrible loss of life, economic chaos and a tragedy for many in the workforce who lose their jobs. I wouldn’t be surprised if this spills over to the domain industry with an increased level of volatility.

The big unanswered question is if and when the big corporates will start spending more money in online advertising. If this does occur, then this influx of advertising funds combined with the existing small-medium sized business will become a boom for domain traffic investors.

In the meantime, I pray that everyone is keeping safe. I look forward to seeing you when this international pandemic finally draws to a close…..hopefully this will be sooner rather than later.

Another week and some fantastic data to trawl through that is impacting each of our domain portfolios. I must admit that I really look forward to the analysis each week and to interpret what the numbers are telling us about the state of the industry.

Last week I made a prediction that this northern hemisphere summer was going to be entirely different from the regular vacation induced downturn that most domain monetizers experience. In fact, I think that rather than the typical 10-15% downturn we’ll get a 5% uplift in revenue.

The main reason for this prediction is that most people have already had an enforced vacation at home with the COVID-19 quarantine. In fact, I don’t know anyone that isn’t looking forward to getting back to work and the regular rhythm of life.

This is going to be great news for domain monetizers as it will mean their portfolios will throw off more cash than normal. The missing piece of the puzzle is when the big corporates will head back into buying traffic.
At the moment the online industry is being supported by the small to medium enterprises….so hurry up Amazon and Walmart. Start buying highly valuable domain traffic!

This week’s update is essential for domain investors and I hope you enjoy the rich data that I present. It’s only a few minutes…..but it may change the direction you take your business.

A lot happens in a single week! The data coming through in this video is riveting as it’s likely tantalizingly shows the beginnings of an upwards trend for the normalized RPM across the board. This is all good news for domain investors.

I’m beginning to think about what the world is going to look like over the next few months. I don’t think we will experience the classical downward trend due to the northern hemisphere summer.

The reason for my thinking is that due to COVID-19, everyone that still has a job has likely burned much of their annual vacation time. This will mean they will be hard at work trying to save their business or keeping the company they work for afloat. This year will be a different one for the domain industry as well.

I would suggest that rather than the typical 15% summer downturn there is going to be a 5% upward trend as the impact of the small to medium sized business that have rushed online will be augmented by the return of the large corporates. It will be interesting to see if my predictions will come true.

In the meantime, check out the video, as it’s full of great stats that will help you plan for your business over the coming months.

This week we saw a continuing of the trend that was established in the previous week’s data. Both Google and direct advertisers are beginning to stabilize their payouts with a slight growth in the overall monetization industry compared to the previous week.

Earnings per Click and Click Through Rate are doing their regular counter-cyclical dance as once goes up the other goes down. This is more of an artifact of smart pricing algorithms rather than actual user or advertiser behaviour.

What’s going to be interesting in the coming weeks is to see what happens to the normalized RPM as the big corporate advertisers come back online. Over the last 10 weeks the small to medium sized businesses have flocked online to try to sell….well….anything. This has kept the payout rates up but with the corporates coming out of hibernation anything is possible.

I spend some time in the last part of the video taking another look at a real, live case that is being optimized by ParkLogic. It’s real data, for a real client and I think you’re going to love it as I unpack what is going on at various traffic levels.

Don’t forget to like the video, leave comments and pass it onto other investors. Keep safe.